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In a wonderful article titled “Karl Keating: In the vanguard of Catholic renewal,” published by the excellent apostolate Catholic Cultureon January 26, 2018, Mr. Keating is rightly described as the “founder of Catholic Answers, easily the largest and most effective organization dedicated to Catholic apologetics in the world. He founded CA in 1979 and remained its president until he turned things over to Christopher Check in 2015.”

Many of you are aware that, in addition to being helped into the Church in no small way by the outstanding apologetics materials of Catholic Answers(including the much loved This Rock Magazine, now published as Catholic Answers Magazine), I had the privilege of working for Karl as an apologist and conference speaker for Catholic Answers for nine years prior to founding the Daughters of Mary, Mother of Israel’s Hope. I delight in any opportunity to say that I have not worked for or come under a more gifted, sincere, intelligent and kind gentleman and leader in the Faith. Karl is an uncompromising man of integrity whom I am honored to know. I can attest to the fact that he has chosen a worthy successor in Christopher Check.

In yesterday’s posting from LifeSiteNews, I was delighted to read the interview below referencing Karl’s latest book, and his thoughts on thecurrent state of the Church. In the midst of the pain and confusion of our day, Karl’s words come across as they always have: with integrity, sanity and clarity.

Mother Miriam of the Lamb of God, O.S.B.

September 19, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – Veteran apologist, author, and Catholic Answers founder Karl Keating entered the arguably heated conversation on the Francis papacy in book form earlier this year with The Francis Feud: Why and How Conservative Catholics Squabble about Pope Francis.

In the book he looks at the ongoing debate over the world’s first Jesuit pope, in particular among Catholics of a conservative mindset – conservative being a term that he points out is not necessarily easily defined.

Beloved, please read the article below in full and send it to all you know who could use a good dose of truth, clarity, sanity and hope!

I am most grateful to Marcus Grodi, the article’s author, who is the Founder and President of The Coming Home Network International, and Host of The Journey Home on EWTN television. You can see the original on their website as well: https://chnetwork.org/category/blog/articles/

After this many of his disciples drew back and no longer went about with him. Jesus said to the twelve, “Will you also go away?” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life; and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.” Jesus answered them, “Did I not choose you, the twelve, and one of you is a devil?” He spoke of Judas the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the twelve, was to betray him (John 6:66-71).

How does one adequately address the growing scandal in the Church? Specifically, as I consider this in relation to our work in the Coming Home Network, how do we explain to non-Catholics why they should still consider coming home to the fullness of the Church — and why must Catholics remain?

As we see in the above Scripture — and as has been said by many during this difficult time — scandals have been present in the Church from the very beginning: one among the Twelve betrayed his calling, his loyalty, betrayed Jesus and sent Him to the cross — one whom Jesus Himself had called into ministry!

Scripture also reminds us, however, that it didn’t begin with Judas, either. There have always been bad shepherds, as attested to throughout the Old Testament. From the very beginning, all the way back to Adam, God’s Chosen People have been plagued with bad shepherds — though not all of them were bad, of course — and too often they were the ones who had the biggest influence on the history of God’s People.

(“Marymass” or “St. Mary’s Day”)

On this day, a Holy Day of Obligation, we recall Our Lady’s being assumed into Heaven and crowned Queen. Though the Church has always believed in the Assumption of Mary, the dogma was only formally defined by Pope Pius XII in 1950 in his Bull Munificentissimus Deus. Note that Mary was assumed into Heaven — taken up by the power of God, like Elias and Enoch — while Christ ascended into Heaven under His own power. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, the date of Mary’s Assumption is placed from anywhere between 3 and 15 years after Our Lord’s Ascension, and the place from which she was assumed is listed as Jerusalem, where her tomb has been placed since around the 6th century, though some claim Ephesus as the proper place. At any rate, St. John Damascene (John of Damascus, A.D. 676 – 754/787) writes:

St. Juvenal, Bishop of Jerusalem, at the Council of Chalcedon (A.D. 451), made known to the Emperor Marcian and Pulcheria, who wished to possess the body of the Mother of God, that Mary died in the presence of all the Apostles, but that her tomb, when opened, upon the request of St. Thomas, was found empty; wherefrom the Apostles concluded that the body was taken up to heaven.

According to tradition, however, Our Lady’s tomb was not exactly found empty; lilies and roses were found where her body “should” have been.

An Interview to be heard and spread

to the ends of the earth!

Beloved, if ever there were a soul who matched the depth of my heart on the truths of our Catholic faith and the urgency of restoring God’s design for marriage and the family, it is John Lacken whose video interview is below. In our recent newsletter, we spoke of A Conference of Catholic Families taking place in Dublin, Ireland, simultaneous with the World Meeting of Families. We warned that the latter headlines numerous speakers who promote their own opinions, if not agendas, of marriage and the family which are at odds with the unchangeable truths of the Church.

John Lacken is the Secretary of the Lumen Fidei (Light of Faith) Institute which has put together A Conference of Catholic Families in Dublin (a conference, John says, that is actually more for Catholic parents than families as a whole, and for anyone who wishes to understand what the Catholic Church teaches on marriage and the family). John is also the Founder of Legio Sanctae Familiae (The Legion of the Holy Family) which seeks to help Catholic families to live out the great call of married life. He is the author of several books and a columnist with the Catholic Voice newspaper in Ireland specializing in writing topical articles on all matters concerning Marriage and Family life as understood from the magisterial teachings of the Catholic Church.

Dear ones, you owe it to yourself and all whom you love to watch and listen to this true, uncompromising, and life-giving message of a true soldier of Christ and His Church. Simply click on the image below and scroll down about half a page:

May Our Blessed Lord bless each of you in your striving to live out your vocation and to be beacons of light to Him Who is the Light of the World!

Even as Christian thinkers respond to divorce, gay “marriage,” and mass feticide, we should also give extra thought to the patriotic question, which is more closely related to the pro-life movement and the defense of marriage than we might at first suppose. As C.S. Lewis has pointed out, the different facets of natural law stand or fall together, so if the sanctity of the conjugal vow, the dignity of unborn life, and the complementarity of the sexes embody real values, then so, too, does loyalty to homeland, community, and heritage. Those of us who are alarmed to see marriage trivialized and redefined might do well to think long and hard about how citizenship has been trivialized and redefined.

During most of the history of the West, citizenship was understood to be a jealously guarded privilege and honor, not a universal entitlement entailing access to a plethora of welfare benefits . . .

Critics of World Meeting of Families

Plan Parallel Conference in Dublin

Alternative Conference Will Run Concurrently,Defend Church’s Teaching on Sexuality

Two months before the Vatican-backed World Meeting of Families convenes in Dublin this August, an Irish organization has announced an alternative conference on families which will be held at the same time in nearby Ballsbridge.

The two-day alternative conference, titled the Conference of Catholic Families, is sponsored by the Lumen Fidei Institute. The alternate conference will feature noted Catholic speakers including Kazakhstani Bishop Athanasius Schneider; Fr. Thomas Weinandy, a member of the Vatican’s International Theological Commission; Dr. Robert Royal, founder and president of the Faith & Reason Institute; and Dr. Gerard van den Aardweg, Dutch psychologist and psychoanalyst. Also speaking will be pro-life philosopher Professor Stéphane Mercier, and John Smeaton, director of Britain’s Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC). Cardinal Raymond Burke, Archbishop-emeritus of St. Louis and a member of the Apostolic Signatura, will address the conference via live video feed.

Most sweet Jesus, whose overflowing charity for men is requited by so much forgetfulness, negligence and contempt, behold us prostrate before Thee, eager to repair by a special act of homage the cruel indifference and injuries to which Thy loving Heart is everywhere subject. Mindful, alas! that we ourselves have had a share in such great indignities, which we now deplore from the depths of our hearts, we humbly ask Thy pardon and declare our readiness to atone by voluntary expiation, not only for our own personal offenses, but also for the sins of those, who, straying far from the path of salvation, refuse in their obstinate infidelity to follow Thee, their Shepherd and Leader, or, renouncing the promises of their baptism, have cast off the sweet yoke of Thy law.

We are now resolved to expiate each and every deplorable outrage committed against Thee; we are now determined to make amends for the manifold offenses against Christian modesty in unbecoming dress and behavior, for all the foul seductions laid to ensnare the feet of the innocent, for the frequent violations of Sundays and holydays, and the shocking blasphemies uttered against Thee and Thy Saints. We wish also to make amends for the insults to which Thy Vicar on earth and Thy priests are subjected, for the profanation, by conscious neglect or terrible acts of sacrilege, of the very Sacrament of Thy Divine Love; and lastly for the public crimes of nations who resist the rights and teaching authority of the Church which Thou hast founded.

Would that we were able to wash away such abominations with our blood. We now offer, in reparation for these violations of Thy divine honor, the satisfaction Thou once made to Thy Eternal Father on the Cross and which Thou continuest to renew daily on our Altars; we offer it in union with the acts of atonement of Thy Virgin Mother and all the Saints and of the pious faithful on earth; and we sincerely promise to make recompense, as far as we can with the help of Thy grace, for all neglect of Thy great love and for the sins we and others have committed in the past. Henceforth, we will live a life of unswerving faith, of purity of conduct, of perfect observance of the precepts of the Gospel and especially that of charity. We promise to the best of our power to prevent others from offending Thee and to bring as many as possible to follow Thee.

O loving Jesus, through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mother, our model in reparation, deign to receive the voluntary offering we make of this act of expiation; and by the crowning gift of perseverance keep us faithful unto death in our duty and the allegiance we owe to Thee, so that we may all one day come to that happy home, where with the Father and the Holy Spirit Thou livest and reignest, God, forever and ever. Amen.